Reading About Running

Six new books worth a look

“Two types of Running Times readers will benefit most from this book,” says co-author and Running Timescontributor Roy Benson. “First, those who currently use a monitor, and need the fine tuning presented in the initial chapter [Monitoring for Maximum Performance], and secondly, those who tried to use one, and gave up on them because the numbers didn’t make sense.” As a runner in the second category, I agree that the practicality of the information in the book might convince me to give HRMs another go. Benson, with years of accumulated coaching wisdom, and Connolly, Director of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Vermont, debunk several HRM training myths and provide precise calculations for finding your true maximum heart rate as well as guidelines for balancing the numbers with perceived effort and factors affecting heart rate. The bulk of the book is comprised of detailed training plans for raising endurance, aerobic threshold, speed and power: solid training info for anyone, unique here only in that workouts are defined by their relative heart rates, rather than, for example, 5K times. The book also has sections on cycling, swimming, rowing and skiing which can be valuable for the runner venturing into these areas and confused about the best intensity for them as perceived effort can be quite different than that for running. —Jonathan BeverlyBuy this book at Amazon.comhere.

In writing this nifty little book, Scott Douglas spells out a lot of what any runner should ever need to know. Written in what might be best considered a smartly organized stream of consciousness, the book contains 250 snippets of informed tips, sagely advice and downright good ideas culled from his 30-plus years of running and 20-plus years of writing about performance-oriented aspects of the sport in Running Times and other magazines. He thoughtfully covers a wide variety topics in the book, from long runs, speed work, fartleks, hills and mileage to injuries, stretching, form, shoes and one-stepping. It’s written in the easy-to-digest, here’s-how-it’s-done tone of a coach, running partner and veteran racer rolled into one. It's not that Douglas has revealed any hidden secrets about running, it’s more that the complete work represents a compelling reinforcement of the runner’s lifestyle, regardless of what age, experience, speed or current fitness a runner might have. For new or less experienced runners it’s likely a tome of information, insights and inspiration, while longtime runners will mostly nod along in agreement as they thumb through the 204 pages of daily affirmation. In either case, it’s an ideal bedside companion that will never collect dust. [Disclaimer: Yes, Douglas is a colleague, but I’d recommend this book and write the same review even if he weren’t.] — Brian Metzler

It might be an exaggeration to say that ultrarunning is the next wave of the running boom, but there’s definitely a movement to going beyond the marathon. Sure, that’s been said since the late 1990s, but the trend is palpable now as evidenced by how fast all ultra-distance races are selling out and how many fast marathoners are picking up the pace on the trails. There have been a few books on the subject, but Bryon Powell’s timely new 230-page paperback is by far the most comprehensive — and the most authoritative — ever published. The creator and publisher of iFunFar.com covers everything from the intrigue of wanting to run an ultra to specific training plans to get a runner through 50K, 50 miles or 100 miles and everything in between. He speaks from his own personal experiences (he’s an accomplished ultrarunner and twice a top-10 finisher at the Leadville 100), but also calls on expert sources and athletes to support his writing. He covers the basics like long runs, hydration, nutrition, blisters and drop bags very well but also goes deep into the ultra world to cover topics like speed work, bonk runs, course-specific training, altitude and race strategy. While this book is ideal for newcomers to ultraunning, there’s plenty in it for veterans of the sport.— B.M.

The mainstreaming of barefoot and minimal running has produced a plethora of books on the subject, the latest a tome by Ken Bob Saxton, who has been running bare for decades and highly visible as a barefoot guru. Besides detailed advice on the practice of barefooting, what makes this book of particular interest to Running Times readers is a chapter on the performance benefits, based on study from the University of Nebraska Omaha published in the April 2011 issue of the International Journal of Sports Medicine. These proven benefits include less oxygen uptake, lower heart rates and reduced perceived effort when running at similar speeds barefoot vs. shod. Saxton and Wallack accompany the study with multiple case studies of serious runners who improved by adopting barefooting. These case studies, in which many of the runners don’t go completely over but integrate barefooting as part of their running programs counteract some of the broader advice of the book, with recommendations, like not mixing barefooting with running in shoes or Vibrams and giving yourself cold-turkey months to adapt to barefooting, which are impractical for serious runners. — J.B.

To Be A Runner: How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking on a 5K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place) By Martin Dugard ($25, Rodale Press)

To most engaged in our sports, running is a serious topic. Very serious. And it is to Marty Dugard, too. As a lifelong runner, high school cross country coach and chronicler of endurance sports, he’s seen the intensity, earnestness, anguish and triumph running produces on a regular basis. In his new book, he writes eloquently about those acute sensations we all experience with running through a collection of thoughtful essays that will make any runner/reader laugh, smile, cringe and, most importantly, realize that Dugard has hit the nail on the head. Because he’s a runner who became a best-selling author — and not the other way around — and because he has a self-effacing sense of humor, he’s able to paint the obsessive-compulsive nature of runners into thought-provoking vignettes and colorful stories that cover everything from jogging in place at stoplights, hill workouts and keeping mileage logs, to pre-race nervousness, buying new running shoes and the perils of quitting a race (and quitting running, albeit temporarily). Dugard also waxes poetic about running in remote jungles, cheering for his wife during a race, his endeavors in triathlon and the fatherly pride of coaching his sons during a high school cross country season. (He writes a thoughtful and often funny blog called “The Paper Kenyan.”) The subtitle suggests running can be a deeply personal agent of change, but you quickly realize that it’s not a how-to-change-your-life book but really an autobiography of how running weaves through the fabric of Dugard’s life and, if we turn the mirror on ourselves, all of our lives. — B.M.

Running On Empty: An Ultramarathoner’s Story of Love, Loss and a Record-Setting Run Across America By Marshall Ulrich($26, Avery Books)

Although running across the country in the name of the charity has become fairly cliché in recent years, Marshall Ulrich is nothing but a sincere original, so it’s no surprise that his new 295-page hardcover book about his 2008 record-setting run from San Francisco to New York City is of the same authentic, one-of-a-kind ilk. Just as he did in the 3,063-mile, 52.5-day run, Ulrich pours his heart and soul into this page-turner, telling running-related stories that weave in every nook and cranny of his life. Ulrich has set some amazing records and pulled off some crazy feats as an ultrarunner (including being the only person running the Leadville 100 and the Pikes Peak Marathon in the same weekend), but this personal saga draws equally upon his warm, gentle heart as his tougher-than-burlap demeanor. What makes this book greater than a story about running across the country are his candid tales about the loss of his first wife to cancer, his personal challenges of being a parent and rediscovering how to love later in life, as well as overcoming a mountain of self-doubt and insecurity, the demise of a once great friendship and adapting his psyche to rely on more than just himself, not to mention the genuine warmth he discovers in many people he meets along the way and the wonder he has for the sights he sees on his run. Ultimately, it’s a lesson in the mindfulness, tenacity and perspective that long-distance running has instilled in each of our lives. — B.M.